A Town Meeting Date
by dearjenna
Summary: (One-shot.) Lorelai visits Luke's Diner and starts to come to terms with how she actually feels for Luke.


**Author's Note: If there is a desire for another part, possibly of the actual town meeting, or you just want more in general, I would give it a shot. But for now, in my obsession over ****_Gilmore Girls_**** and wish to watch it over again, here is my one-shot. Reviews, please. **

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><p>A Town Meeting Date<p>

There are clichés for the ages, in all of Rory's books even, that reek of "truly seeing someone for the first time," but Lorelai finally had it the moment she stepped through Luke's Diner and saw him standing there. After years of knowing each other, it was as if she hardly knew him. And Lorelai knew that wasn't the case. He was taking Kirk's odd order and ignoring Taylor—his two favorite past-times. She felt her heart skip a beat as she heard his deep voice answer Taylor's demands with rough grunts and short sentences, but she had to keep her cool. Lorelai was nothing if not someone who could make a man weak—at least, that's what she had been told. With a quirky tongue at the corner of her mouth, she walked over to the bar and sat down closest to the register, smiling. She never would have admitted it to herself before, but it was her favorite spot. It was her turn to annoy Luke—Kirk and Taylor had their chance.

Luke turned to see Lorelai sitting at his bar and immediately smiled, which he so rarely did. Lorelai was starting to believe the town's teasing that it was always for her. "What's up, Luke?" she said with a smirk.

"Coffee?" He was always so short, but he still asked her with a grin. He would never admit that he had been keeping a peripheral eye on her since she passed the storefront to open the door.

"Am I still breathing?" she lifted her hands up at him as if to say, "What are you nuts?" which she would have gladly said, as well.

Luke passed her a worn mug of his best coffee, and Lorelai smiled, breathing in the smell of the coffee beans. Lorelai took a small sip and inadvertently moaned in pleasure. Luke looked at her as he rung up a customer's check and chuckled. "Good?"

"You know you're the best," she said with a smile and took another sip. She hadn't even said it to mean more, she hadn't even looked at him when she did, but there was still so much honesty in her voice.

Luke paused for only a millisecond and then continued to pull change from the ancient cash register. He felt something in his chest seize up. He didn't want to admit it, but even small, friendly gestures such as that tore him apart a little. He wanted to say it back, but he never was that good with his words or brave enough.

Kirk got up from his seat stiffly awkward. "Thanks, Luke," he said and turned to Taylor. "I'll see you later at the town meeting, Taylor."

"Of course, Kirk, where else would I be?" Taylor responded as if Kirk was an idiot, Luke would agree.

Kirk paused and looked to his shoes before clearing his throat. "Right," he squeaked. "I'll be off, then."

Taylor rolled his eyes and threw some money on the bar before walking away. Just as he was about to step out of the door, he turned and pointed a finger at Luke. "I know you weren't listening to me, but maybe you will tonight when I throw your disregard for this town in the citizens' faces!"

"Yeah, I guess we haven't had a good lynching in some time, huh?!" Luke shouted at Taylor, startling a few customers. Taylor stormed down the sidewalk towards his store.

Lorelai smiled, never daring to laugh and ruin the moment. "Oh cool, I'll tell Rory to grab the pitchfork!" she said, excitedly.

Luke glared at her and the snatched Taylor's money off of the bar.

"Geez, man," Lorelai said. "What was that about?"

"Oh nothing," Luke said, slamming the register drawer shut and putting a hand on the back of his head, adjusting his always-backwards hat. "Taylor just thinks he can twist my arm into decorating for the holidays. Twisting, twisting, twisting it! That's all he does is twist until you can't feel your arm anymore, and when he's done twisting that arm he goes for the other until you're screaming for mercy. Like I care about decorating for Christmas!"

"Watch it, Scrooge!" Lorelai teased.

"Naw, I'm serious!" Luke said. "What does adding a few lights to my diner have to do with the rest of this town?"

"Hey," Lorelai said, putting down her coffee for the first time. "Christmas is a wonderful time."

"Sure, if you like obnoxious lawn decorations and carolers knocking on your door at all hours of the night, singing loudly so you can't sleep for your 6 a.m. shift the next day."

"It's not all that bad," Lorelai said with a smirk, sipping her coffee again.

"Yeah, I guess so," Luke replied throwing a hand out in defeat. He always did that, and he wasn't so sure why. No matter how long or loud his rants, Lorelai always rationalized his frustrations for him. He ended up agreeing with her even if he didn't want to. Lorelai noticed it, too. She reveled in those moments.

Luke watched Lorelai take a sip of her coffee, and she happened to catch him. She looked down to the cup as it stayed close to her lips, then met his eyes again, finally putting it down. There was so much tension and admiration in his eyes that she had to look down again before she blushed. He was one of the few men who could actually make her feel that way. Sure there were charming men of money her parents have set her up with in the past, or men she met on her own that happened to be gracious and suave—but none of that compared to what a once-described-by-her-mother-as rustic man in flannel did to her every day, more than once. Lorelai wasn't always willing to admit it to the capacity everyone else saw, but he was as big a part of her life as maybe even Rory. Rory would admit so, too.

After what must have been 10 seconds of an accidental, longing look from Luke, Lorelai smirked at him and batted her eyelashes. "Care to be my date to the town meeting?"

"What do I look like Boo Radley?"

"More like Paul Bunyan."

"No."

"Why, Luke? It'll be fun."

"Because that's what Taylor wants."

"But I want it more."

"Why?"

"Because that's what Taylor wants."

Luke squinted his eyes, knowing exactly what Lorelai was doing. She laughed. "Fine, be a grump. Rory and I were going to bring a pack of Red Vines and watch the show, though."

"Red Vines, huh?"

"Oh, are you a Red Vines fan?"

Luke didn't answer, he just smiled. "Fine," he said throwing his hands up. "But I'm bringing coffee."

"Of course."

"And we're sitting in the back."

"Eh, well…"

"Back!"

"Let's settle for middle."

"Were you actually going to say the front?"

"What, and miss out on getting to throw things at the back of Kirk's head during intermission? More like front-middle."

"What the hell is front-middle?"

"Like the third or fourth row."

"That's too close."

"Too close to the front?"

"Too close to Kirk."

"Fine, second to last row."

"Deal."

Lorelai grinned, and it was Luke's turn to look down at his feet. "Rory and I will be here at 7:45 to pick up our hot dates and you," she joked.

"Get out of here," Luke said with a grin, shooing her away.

"That's no way to speak to a lady," Lorelai teased.

"Well maybe I'll be better in a few hours," Luke replied. Lorelai got up and started to pull money from her purse. "Stop." Luke put his hand up to her.

"Wha—?"

"It's on the house."

"Thanks, Luke," Lorelai said with so much sincerity in her voice that it thrilled Luke, and when Lorelai walked out of Luke's Diner he knew that he would take the town's lynching if it only gave him more of a chance to be next to her and hear her laugh.


End file.
